The present invention relates generally to the field of medication pillboxes, and more particularly to a pillbox loader that reduces the likelihood of mistakes, provides ease of use, and is portable.
In the ensuing decades, the number of Americans aged sixty-five and older will double to nearly seventy million. The majority of these Americans will, at some time or another, be required to take multiple prescription medications and supplemental vitamins for sustained periods. As these people get older, their ability to timely, efficiently, conveniently, and safely ingest multiple types of multiple doses of medications and vitamins at multiple times will decrease substantially as a result of varying degrees of vision loss, memory loss and physical degeneration. In response to this reality, the use of medication and vitamin pillboxes and dispensers will increase dramatically. Unfortunately, most of these pillboxes and dispensers are inadequate in ensuring that the user can easily and accurately receive the proper medication and/or vitamin.
There are numerous types of medication pillboxes and dispensers, whose aims are to create an easier and more accurate method for organizing and dispensing medications for their users. A common deficiency in the prior art, however, is that the problem of accurately loading pills into a pillbox or dispenser has not been sufficiently addressed. Most pillboxes are designed without recognizing that a pillbox is normally loaded by the patient, without any assistance from a pharmacist, or a competent caregiver. Unfortunately, the probability of pill loading errors increases with the type and number of pills to be loaded and due to the age, and the physical and mental limitations of the patient who is loading the apparatus. If a pillbox or dispenser is incorrectly loaded, then the patient may fail to take the prescribed medicine on time, or may mistakenly ingest an incorrect dosage or a harmful combination of medicines. Naturally, serious and life threatening health consequences may result from such mistakes.
Due to the repetitive and tedious nature of the task involved in loading a pillbox or dispenser, it is difficult to avoid making a mistake. Loading problems and errors may even cause some patients to stop using their pillboxes. One or more of the following problems may cause mistakes to be made in loading pills into pillboxes or dispensers:
Visual Complexity: Too many pills in close proximity can confuse the patient, and pills of similar size, shape and color can add to the confusion.
Haste: Trying to load pills too quickly can cause mistakes.
Infirmities: Infirmities relating to poor vision, memory and coordination usually associated with older patients, may easily lead to mistakes.
Interruptions: A patient""s concentration in performing a loading task accurately may be broken by interruptions, causing the patient to lose his or her place in a pill count or proper loading sequence.
These problems in loading pillboxes and dispensers have been partially addressed in the prior art with only limited success. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,693,371 (1987) to Malpass, U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,810 (1988) to Christiansen and U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,589 (1999) to Lim, describe pillboxes and dispensers that employ both an apparatus and a method which try to ensure the accurate loading of pills. The pillbox described by Malpass employs a series of dual compartments, located either under or besides the compartments to be loaded. A sample dose of each medication is loaded into one compartment of each pair. The sample dose is used as an example to show the user how to load the adjacent compartment. A major disadvantage of this apparatus is that it requires the sacrifice of a portion of each prescription to fill the sample compartments. Prescriptions may not always provide sufficient pills to fill the sample compartments and the cost of extra pills may be substantial. The need to provide sample compartments as well as pill compartments almost doubles the size of the pillbox, making the pillbox less convenient and more expensive to manufacture. The Malpass pillbox is limited to providing only one day of medication, since it allows only one medication type per compartment. Multiple pills in a compartment could overlay and obscure each other. Even if only pills of the same type are used, they could overlay and obscure each other, especially when pill size and quantity are large. The need to reload the pillbox each day increases the probability of making a loading error. It also makes setup and loading more time consuming, when compared to loading done on a weekly basis. Although only one type of medication is used per compartment, it is still relatively easy to accidentally drop pills into adjacent compartments. If these adjacent compartments contain pills of similar size, shape and color, the patient might not notice errors, and the invention does not provide any type of cross-checking method in order to detect any mistakes.
Christiansen proposes two methods for loading his dispenser. The first is the traditional method of loading the pills manually into compartments. No loading aides are provided, so success is dependent entirely on the skill of the loader. All of the deficiencies and problems described above would apply. The second method involves the use of a prepackaged bubble pack. The bubble pack is theoretically available at a pharmacy, either prepackaged by a drug manufacturer or loaded by a pharmacist. Its multiple compartments have a permanently closed top and a slide-open bottom. The pharmacist loads the package manually after first flipping it upside down. Again, no loading aides are provided and all the deficiencies and problems would apply. A patient would not be likely to try to load the bubble pack himself. It would be just as easy to manually load pills directly into the dispenser. Unless the patient is able to find a pharmaceutical company to prepackage his or her medications into the bubble pack, he will have to rely on the skill of a pharmacist, or his or her own skill, to manually load the dispenser. Christiansen uses no method or apparatus for detecting or correcting loading mistakes.
Lim""s method of pill loading involves the use of circular color-coded templates that are matched to storage compartments located on a dispenser wheel. Before loading, the patient must apply one or more color-coded labels to each prescription vial. Each label must be marked to indicate the quantity of pills to be loaded into the matching color-coded compartments. The major deficiencies of this technique are: 1) proper color coding of templates and labels, marking of quantities on labels and the application of labels on prescription vials is complex and prone to error; 2) the only way to verify accuracy of the composite pill loading is to check the quantities on each label against the pills in each pill compartment, which is time consuming and also prone to error; 3) changes in number and/or timing of medications are difficult to accomplish; 4) considerable visual complexity can result when using this method, and patients having infirmities are likely to be significantly challenged by setting up and using this loading method; and 5) no adequate method or apparatus for detecting or correcting loading mistakes is provided, and checking color codes and quantities marked on pill vials against pills loaded into compartments can demand too much of the patient""s memory to be viable in searching for and correcting mistakes.
The present invention overcomes the significant limitations in the prior art by providing a method and device which substantially improves the accuracy of a pill loading operation and the detection of pill loading mistakes.
The present invention provides a pill loader system and method comprising a pillbox loader and a pillbox. The pillbox loader contains a latticework pattern of rows and columns of pillbox loader compartments. The rows of loader compartments correspond to the time of day during which a patient""s medication is to be taken (e.g., morning, noon, evening, and night or actual times may be entered), and the columns of loader compartments correspond to the days of the week during which a medication should be taken. The pillbox loader also contains a loader bottom plate which is slidably positioned adjacent to a bottom portion of the loader in order to form a loader bottom, and at the same time, form a bottom for each loader compartment. Each loader compartment and its associated bottom form a box-like loader container, with an open top end. All of the loader containers are used to load pills, except for the leftmost column of containers which is used only to display the time of day at which a pill or pills are to be taken. The pillbox loader is also equipped with a hinged loader lid which is attached to the loader and is used to cover the loader when not in use and to hold written loader forms applicable to each medication to be loaded.
A pillbox is also provided which is approximately the same size and shape as the pillbox loader, and the pillbox contains pillbox compartments which form the same latticework and are the same in number, size and shape as the loader compartments. The pillbox also has a pillbox bottom plate which is also slidably positioned adjacent to a bottom portion of the pillbox in order to form a pillbox bottom, and at the same time, form a bottom for each pillbox compartment. Each pillbox compartment and its associated bottom form a box-like pillbox container, with an open top end. As in the pillbox loader, all of the pillbox containers are utilized to hold pills, except for the leftmost column of containers which is used only to display the time of day during which a pill or pills are to be taken. The pillbox is also equipped with a hinged pillbox lid which is attached to the pillbox and is used to cover the pillbox when not in use and to hold composite pillbox forms describing the medications which have been loaded into the pillbox.
In operation, the pillbox lid and the loader lid are both opened and the pillbox loader is mated to the pillbox by positioning the loader on the top of the pillbox such that the loader bottom plate is adjacent to the top of the pillbox and each loader container is aligned with a corresponding pillbox container. The loader bottom plate is temporarily removed from the loader by sliding it out of the bottom of the loader. Once removed, a clear plastic flap, which is attached to one edge of the loader bottom plate and covers the surface of the plate, is lifted or rolled off the plate in order to permit the insertion of a loader form, which is approximately the same size as the loader bottom plate. The loader form depicts a calendar grid of spaces forming a pattern of rows and columns which exactly matches the latticework pattern of rows and columns of the loader containers and, similarly, matches the pattern of rows and columns of pillbox containers. The column of spaces on the leftmost side of the grid forms a time of day calendar column containing time of day indicator spaces which correspond to the time of day during which a patient""s medication is to be taken (e.g., morning, noon, evening and night or actual times may be used), and each row of spaces, adjacent to a time of day indicator space, forms a row of dosage indicator spaces which correspond to the days of the week during which a medication should be taken. The loader form is used by a patient or a health care provider in order to illustrate the time of day and the day when a specific pill is to be taken. For example, if the patient is supposed to take one 250 mg calcium pill at noon for one week, the patient or health care provider would complete the loader form corresponding to the calcium medication by marking the time indicator space within the time of day calendar column which correspond to the time of day during which medication is to be taken (e.g., xe2x80x9cmorn,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cnoon,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9ceve,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cnitexe2x80x9d or actual times may be used), and then by marking the number xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d in each of seven dosage indicator spaces within the calendar row which corresponds to the time of day indicator space containing the word xe2x80x9cnoonxe2x80x9d in the time of day calendar column.
In a similar manner, the pillbox bottom plate is temporarily removed from the pillbox by sliding it out of the bottom of the pillbox. After it is removed, a clear plastic flap, which is attached to one edge of the pillbox bottom plate and covers the surface of the plate, is lifted or rolled off the plate in order to permit the insertion of the pillbox time form, which is approximately the same size as the pillbox bottom plate. The pillbox time form sets forth a single column of spaces on the leftmost side of the pillbox time form which forms a time of day calendar column containing the time of day indicator spaces which match the identical time of day calendar column of spaces displayed on the loader form. The pillbox time form is used by a patient or a health care provider in order to illustrate the time of day when a pill or pills should be taken. Continuing with the above example, the patient or health care provider completes the pillbox time form by marking each space within the time of day calendar column with the time of day during which medication is to be taken. In the example, xe2x80x9cmorn,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cnoon,xe2x80x9d evexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cunitexe2x80x9d or actual taking times would be written in the four (4) spaces comprising the time of day calendar column, indicating that one or more pills are to be taken at those times during the day.
The pill loading operation is then performed by sliding the loader bottom plate back into the loader so that the loader calendar grid is aligned with the pattern of rows and columns of loader containers. Once the grid is in place, the pill loading display instruction appears within the bottom of the appropriate loader container. Similarly, the pillbox bottom plate is positioned within the pillbox by sliding it back into the bottom portion of the pillbox so that the time of day display appears within the bottom portion of the leftmost column of containers. In the example referred to above, the patient or health care provider places one calcium pill in the bottom of each loader container displaying a xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d since the number xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d indicates that one calcium pill is to be taken on the day and time corresponding to the number""s position within the calendar grid. After one calcium pill has been placed within each loader container for the week, the patient or health care provider simply slides the loader bottom plate out of the loader which causes the calcium pills to drop down, under the force of gravity, into corresponding pillbox containers. The pillbox is now loaded with one calcium pill in a one week row of pillbox containers adjacent to and corresponding to the correct time of day (i.e., xe2x80x9cnoonxe2x80x9d), which is displayed within the leftmost container which does not contain a pill.
If additional medication must be taken during the same week, the patient or health care provider repeats the same procedure for each dosage of medication to be taken on specific days and at specific times. The invention requires that a separate loader form, illustrating the correct dosage, be utilized for each medication. If the dosage requires that two or more pills are to be taken at one time, then the number of pills to be taken is depicted on the loader form by placing a number within the appropriate dosage indicator space within the calendar grid which corresponds to the correct number of pills. Thus, in the above example, if two calcium pills were to be taken at noon, the number xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d would appear in each dosage indicator space for the week.
In a preferred embodiment, a bottom portion of each loader form displays a written dosage description which contains, among other things, the name and a picture of the pill to be taken, the number of pills (corresponding to the number written in the calendar grid) to be taken at one time, and on which days and at which times (corresponding to the position within the calendar grid) the pill or pills are to be taken. This dosage description may be used to assist the patient or health care provider in correctly completing the form by placing the correct number within the correct position within the calendar grid. When the loader form is slid into the loader in order to begin loading a specific medication dosage, the written loading instruction appears below and adjacent to the calendar grid. In this manner, the written dosage description can be used by the patient or health care provider as a convenient, visual cross-reference to further ensure that the correct pill and dosage is being placed in the correct loader container.
The present invention substantially improves upon prior art techniques utilized to load medications into a pillbox by providing a method and apparatus which reduces the visual complexity of loading several different pills, to be taken over several days, into a pillbox. Visual complexity is minimized, if not eliminated, by the insertion of the loader form within the loader which acts as a visual aid in guiding the patient or health care provider in placing the pills into the loader, and ultimately into the pillbox. Visual complexity is further reduced by the utilization of one loader form for each medication dosage which causes the patient or health care provider to complete the loading operation of one pill type before starting the loading operation of another pill type. Thus, it is no longer necessary for the person loading the pillbox to keep track by counting and/or visually observing the contents of each pillbox container in order to confirm that the correct number of each type of pill has been placed within each container. Obviously, as the number of pills that must be taken at one time increases, the difficulty of keeping track of which pills have already been loaded into a specific pillbox container also increases. The present invention eliminates the complexity of this task by requiring that the patient or health care provider complete the loading operation of each pill dosage, guided by the visual aid on the loader form, before commencing the loading operation of another pill dosage.
Traditional pillbox loading operations are also prone to errors due to the fact that accuracy is largely dependent upon the ability of the person doing the loading operation to employ a well organized loading procedure and to maintain a high level of awareness and concentration in order to ensure that the medication is loaded correctly. The present invention greatly assists the person performing the loading operation in both areas. A well organized loading procedure is provided by utilizing the loader and its associated loading forms which compels the patient or health care provider to load one mediation at a time and to follow the visual aids displayed by each loader form. Further, the person carrying out the loading does not lose his or her concentration so easily because the loading task has been substantially simplified, requiring less mental energy to avoid making a mistake.
Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent in connection with the more detailed description which follows: